ABSTRACT
Life-cycle costing (LCC) can be a useful tool for Green Public Procurement (GPP) if the costs savings during the "product" lifespan compensate the price premiums linked to the green alternatives or if there is a validated correlation between low life-cycle costs and low environmental impact. The environmental component of LCC was made explicit when the scope of the methodology broadened to include not only "internal" costs but also "external" costs or costs of externalities in an attempt to internalise in the economic system the effects. The internalisation of externalities is a way to consider environmental aspects beyond those related to the usual LCC elements of operational, maintenance and end-of-life costs. One option is to define strict environmental technical specifications to ensure a green result and use LCC (with or without externalities) as an award criterion to select amongst already green alternatives.
